BTW, according to the most recent Beat post I could find on DC's sales:

"DC Comics placed six of its releases in the Top 10 in December, including two issues of Justice League of America, three issues of the weekly 52 and the debut of new ongoing series Justice Society of America, by writer Geoff Johns and artist Dale Eaglesham. The publisher’s output rate, which had seen a drastic 25% increase in November, was only marginally down from 88 titles to 85 (not counting magazines and cartoon adaptations)."

The post doesn't reveal anything particularly negative or startling about their numbers.

You're right - it is pointless. Most of the DC and Marvel stuff I ignore, even if I'm buying it, because everyone knows about it. That's the point of these posts - to highlight some stuff you might not know about. I'm glad you get some ideas from it, even if you don't like my nitpicking. I think I'm relatively easy on the nitpicking compared to some people, but maybe I'm not.

And I'm sorry, but Frank Cho drawing a female Ultron with hair just screams to be made fun of!!!!

And we'll see how long Ennis' stint on Midnighter lasts, Brit. Perhaps he'll take the high road and not have a snit like some writers. I wonder.

Y'know. Short term.

Abandoning DC titles in droves according to what stats? I don't feel like saying that has much basis in reality. Either way, the World War III thing is an insanely minor bitching point at best. You say DC encourages this fanboy continuity niggling, and maybe they do, but that's the same thing you're doing here. As others have pointed out, the JLA Grant Morrison storyline never actually had World War III *happen* or be referred to as that by the characters. Morrison, being one of 52's writers, probably realizes his story was named that. And while the other titles you name certainly are huge wars, they still weren't called World War III.

But, see, that whole paragraph and this whole conversation? It's totally pointless. That's sort of what I meant. If you want to complain about some superhero books, there's real and worthwhile things to complain about, but too often you're finding these small ridiculous things to point out that don't affect anything in terms of whether or not the book is actually going to be a good read.

Well, of course technically he is still currently working for DC, doing Midnighter for Wildstorm.

I know Brian K. Vaughan is writing #7 of that, but apart from that I haven't heard about any creative team changes past that.

My problem with Marvel is much the same. Too many tie-ins and too much crap. I still like some books to an insane (She-Hulk, Hulk, Cable/Deadpool, X-factor...) but mostly I really don't care about anything they're putting out.

Oh...and I've read Eisner's Spirit. Not to sound all heretical, but it didn't really do anything for me. I much prefer Cooke's version to be perfectly frank. Madman is awesome though...one of the best comics I've ever read and I wish I had the funds to buy the Gargantua version (methinks some hunger will have to be ignored for the next 2 months...)

Oh, and for those curious, I still like Catwoman, Superman, Birds of Prey, Manhunter, and I'm slowly begining to get into Atom and Shadowpact. Everything else? Not as much...thus the impending drops from my pull...

And Philip - I love superhero comics, when done well. I bitch about the idiocy of DC and Marvel because they seem to actively encourage this rabid continuity-obsessed fan base but then ignore said fan base when it comes time to actually publish their comics. If you're referring to me bitching about World War III, I would say that Invasion! counts as a world war in DC parlance, as does the War of the Gods. That means we should be up to about World War VI in the DCU. It's not that I hate what DC and Marvel are doing, I just don't see any coherent business plan. Apparently, neither do readers, who are abandoning DC titles in droves.

You realize the blog is called "Comics Should Be Good." That's a whole mess of good comics you haven't read.

As a general rule, creators who do their own stuff DON'T do it for DC and Marvel, who would end up owning said stuff anyway. If you go to the Big Two, it's because you want to write [favorite character here]. Or need money, but if it's for the money why bother creating an all-new property?

Cecil Castellucci is a woman. A lot of people have been confused by that. I guess it hasn't been gone over quite enough, eh?

- Hear, hear! GrimJack is one of my all-time favorite books, so I'm glad to see it (and Grell's Jon Sable, another good one) getting the trade treatment from IDW. John Ostrander also mentioned a new GrimJack mini being due out later this year.

- Not sure whether to recommend the new Madman book or not. I loved the previous series, and have pre-ordered the gargantuan omnibus edition that Image is putting out, but I haven't read anything in the last few years from Allred. I don't know if his style will still appeal to me now or not...

"You know, I wandered into the non-comics section of Previews, and now I’m transfixed. On page 383 you can order The Big Book of Breasts, which is just what it says it is: a look at the obsession with breasts that our culture has. Right underneath it is The Bunny Book: How to Walk, Talk, Tease & Please Like a Playboy Bunny. Why would anyone buy this? I’m just wondering"

- Not buying either of those, but I do plan on buying the DC Covergirls book. I think that sounds to be very entertaining, even if they could have "celebrated girlpower" by picking a better title...

And I'm glad to see some love for GrimJack. I'm not picking up this trade, because I already have these issues, but I'm eagerly awaiting the point when the trades get to the issues I don't have.

My guess is that Tony Stark is going to buy the farm at the end of Civil War. My track record for such things, though, is often very, very wrong.